1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to data backup. Particularly, this application relates to managing data backup in a distributed environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Companies today extensively rely on online, frequently accessed, constantly changing data to run their businesses. Unplanned events that inhibit the availability of this data can seriously damage business operations. Additionally, any permanent data loss, from natural disaster or any other source, will likely have serious negative consequences for the continued viability of a business. Therefore, when disaster strikes, companies must be prepared to eliminate or minimize data loss, and recover quickly with useable data.
Data backup can be used to prevent data loss in case of any such disaster. A data backup process typically creates copies of original data. These copies can be used to restore the original data after a data loss event. The backed-up data can be stored using a variety of media, such as magnetic tape, hard drives, and/or optical storage, among others. Various techniques can be used to optimize such backups, such as to improve backup speed, restore speed, data security, media usage and/or reduce bandwidth requirements.
While the embodiments of the application are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are provided as examples in the drawings and detailed description. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description are not intended to limit the embodiments to the particular form disclosed. Instead, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.